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I like being methodical and ensuring that the best choice is hammered out, but this is starting to get a little long in the tooth.

The Orioles should have a list, time plan, and process to make the Dipoto, LaCava, Watson, White, etc... interviews in a tighter time frame. I am sorry, but the Rangers success should not delay this out to wait for either Hart or Levine.

It is my understanding that both Dipoto and LaCava make strong cases and the staff were impressed with the interviews. Why has it been a week and they are still trying to set up interviews, etc...

Other teams are starting to hire the better front office personal for promotions. The brain drain might leave the Orioles two steps behind and they are left with the scraps. Or forbid, organizational re-trends already in the fold.

This process is starting to smell and I am not sure anyone will like the outcome....

ofahn wrote:This could be an analogy of the entire Angelos ownership period except for the Gillick years. Just the disfunctional process alone could scare off some of the better candidates.

I'm personally more concerned by the number of front office positions that have been filled or extended during a period in which we're supposedly interviewing for a new boss of the front office. When an organization with a reputation for withholding autonomy from the GM makes clear that its new GM won't be able to fill the staff as he sees fit, it hardly gives an indication that the team's reputation is ill-founded.

This is a huge move for this franchise, this should obviously have a major impact on the franchise's direction over the next few years and beyond. Therefore it really worries me that Don is beginning to doubt that the outcome will be a good one. I hope it is either Dipoto or Lacava, from the limited reports I've read both sound like great options to turn the organization around with player development and good communication. If the O's end up going with more of the same, I will be very disappointed. How long should the list really be? If Dipoto and Lacava interview well and seem to be liked by just about everyone in baseball then why not lock one up already?!? I know they want to make the right decision but sheesh... The new guy should be in as soon as possible to begin preparing for all of the nuances of the offseason.

The Orioles have offered a few contracts to lower level front office and player development people. Notably Roch has announced that Dan Radison has been offered a contract with the Orioles in some minor coaching capacity.

This is not uncommon practice and the GM usually has little impact and takes the recommendations from the Director of Player Development, Assistant, and roving instructors. So this has little impact to the current situation at hand.

The bad side of this is it can become a PR nightmare from the outside. They are hiring guys, but no GM is in the building and I know some will say "Should the GM at least has a say in who he brings into the front office"...

I agree, but the GM likely will only bring over a few guys from outside the Orioles his first season and keep most of the staff in place, maybe with some slight re-organization. I expect whoever takes over will have his fingerprints over the front office well before the start of the 2013 season.

New Guys: They likely will add a few advisers that will oversee the scouting department, international scouting, player developement. Whether they hold "Special Assistant" or "Director" is a different story for 2012.

GM Search Week 3 has three interviews and expect 1-2 more that might take this entire process into 5 week stage, leaving less than a month before winter meetings start up. It will leave the Orioles behind the 8 ball in the entire process.

Mind you - Andy has made it known that he was no longer coming back sometime in July and word leaked to global sites in early August. The Orioles ownership made a full court press to keep Andy until the last possible straw, but all of that time the Orioles should have been making the groundwork to plan for his exit.

I do not mind being methodical in the approach, but riding out interviews over a month is overboard. Anyone in the Rangers organization could have given permission right from the start and maybe the phone call feelers go out the door and a interview in between series. Yes it is that easy and it would not be the first time. The Angles talked to the Yankees to interview two officials in a similar manner.

Here everyone knew that Andy was about one step out the door. I had known two weeks before the Area Code games that he was a goner and JJ wanted out of Baltimore. It is poor planning to not have a course of action that it takes three weeks to interview three candidates and riding this process out longer...

I am only at a loss because think if you were one of the other interviewed people. He was just lumped with guys that are highly respected across the landscape. I mean LaCava has be apart of two reclamation projects. Watson has so many years of building strong systems and scouting highly talent. Dipoto is the next young gun....

What is wrong with this picture? I mean it is one thing to keep him in the fold to promote stability. It is a whole other ball of wax to say that he did a job to merit an interview for General Manager.

I would not be running to the hills saying this is Tony LaCava's job just at this moment. I had heard that Dipoto was in the drivers seat by a number of people in the know within the Warehouse and along the baseball landscape with ties to the situation.

I know that Tony hit a home run in his interview as well. It seems as though Watson came away pleased by some of the media tweets today. If it were me, you know that I held Tony in high regard since this hit the fan. He was always my top choice. I do not know Watson too well, but times we have passed one another, he shows solid baseball chops.

This is the Orioles however and they like to make the splash no one expects.